Video Art

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6_C8DthN94

Ryan Trecartin

Out of all the art pieces I've ever seen, this guy takes the prize for the most outrageous. At a first glance at any of his video art pieces, it seems like a bottled up mess of insanity. But if you take time to listen to some of the things the characters are saying through all of the insanity, it is actually kind of poetic. I think the overall idea that Trecartin is trying to express in his work is the mixing of so many stereotypes together as one chaotic mess. I think he's mainly trying to express the absurdity of doing so.

The Residents

This group of musicians/artists are way out there. I think it's cool that no one actually knows who any of them actually are. It kind of gives them the ultimate cult status unlike crappy bands like Slipknot, and other bands who wear masks who commercialize what they do in the cheesiest way possible. I've seen many bands who try to hide their identities by using masks or makeup, but it always ends up just being a gimmick. These guys aren't, and I think that's very different approach for the music world at least. All in all this group of artists serves justice to the world of music and of art as a true and unique creation.

Performance Art

Nam June Paik

I really enjoyed the diversity of all of this man's work. What I like best about Nam June Paik is how he fiddles with the notion of reality vs. virtual reality with many of his art pieces. It seemed that he made the use of the television to display this notion most of the time. I also really enjoy the "retro" look of many of his pieces, using old pieces of electronic equipment.
The way in which he used many different televisions to create a larger creation through putting them all together, really inspired me when I was thinking of ideas for my performance art piece with the solo cups. It used the same notion of putting a bunch of small objects together to create something with a greater meaning.

Stelarc

As soon as I saw this guy I thought immediately of the Borg from the old Star Trek shows. He has applied technology to try and add functions to our existing human bodies, which is remarkable. I think he is a very unique person to be able to apply his engineering ability with a completely creative and artistic attitude. I think that there is a lot of validity for some of the positive uses his works could be used for to help everyday people. I hope he continues his work and passes it down to a predecessor to carry on his work when he is no longer able to.

Orlan

Out of all the performance art pieces we have observed in class, her plastic surgery pieces are by far the most intense and powerful in my opinion. Most people would probably consider them to be way over the line of insanity, but I think in many respects that is part of what she is trying to express through them. I think that her underlying goal is to completely destroy the "image" barrier that binds our society by destroying her own feminine characteristics with the plastic surgery.